Shuttle-UM has added a second bus to the 105 Courtyards route for weekday afternoons in response to overcrowding, Department of Transportation Services officials said.
“Time to time, we’ve reached capacity on that route,” said Armand Scala, DOTS senior associate director. “We know there’s a demand for that service, so we added a second bus to get everyone back and forth from where they need to go.”
DOTS was able to increase the weekday service by reducing late evening service on Friday and Saturday on the Purple route, Scala said.
“Courtyards still gets the same amount of service, we just took some of the service from Friday and Saturday nights and moved that over to weekdays, where we knew it was needed,” Scala said.
“A majority of the 732 Courtyards residents rely on the University of Maryland shuttles to get to and from campus,” said Ashley Ladyman, Courtyards resident life assistant director.
Junior computer science major Colin McGrath said the added bus should help more students get to the campus when they need to.
“It’ll help a lot because the buses have been way too crowded in the afternoons, sometimes even being literally to capacity,” he said. “During the weekend nights the bus is barely used, so they pretty much hit the nail on the head with it.”
The 105 Courtyards schedule estimates a bus will arrive at the complex about every 10 minutes on weekdays.
Ladyman is optimistic that the changes will help students arrive to class on time.
“We have a great partnership with [DOTS],” she said. “We really like working with them.”
